had the treaties been delayed. For,
as a matter of fact, those now peaceable tribes, soured by
lawless aggression, and sheltered by their vast forests, might
easily have taken an Indian revenge, and hampered, if not
hindered, the safe settlement of the country for years to come.
The Government, therefore, decided to treat with them at once
on equitable terms, and to satisfy their congeners, the half-breeds,
as well, by an issue of scrip certificates such as their fellows
had already received in Manitoba and the organized Territories.
To this end adjustments were made by the Hon. Clifford Sifton,
then Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of
Indian Affairs, during the winter of 1898-9, and a plan of
procedure and basis of treatment adopted, the carrying out
of which was placed in the hands of a double Commission, one
to frame and effect the Treaty, and secure the adhesion of
the various tribes, and the other to investigate and extinguish
the half-breed title. At the head of the former was placed the
Hon. David Laird, a gentleman of wide experience in the early
days in the North-West Territories, whose successful treaty
with the refractory Blackfeet and their allies is but one of many
evidences of his tact and sagacity. [The Hon. David Laird is a native
of Prince Edward Island. His father emigrated from Scotland to that
Province early in the last century, and ultimately became a member of
its Executive Council. After leaving college his son David began life
as a journalist, but later on took to politics, and being called,
like his father, to the Executive Council, was selected as one of
the delegates to Ottawa to arrange for the entrance of the Island
into the Canadian Confederation. He was subsequently elected to the
Dominion House of Commons, and became Minister of the Interior in
the Mackenzie Administration. After three years' occupancy of this
department he was made Lieut.-Governor of the North-West Territories,
an office which he filled without bias and to the satisfaction of
both the foes and friends of his own party. He returned to the Island
at the close of his official term, but was called thence by the
Laurier Administration to take charge of Indian affairs in the West,
with residence in Winnipeg, which is now his permanent home.] A
nature in which fairness and firmness met was, of all dispositions,
the most suited to handle such important negotiations with the
Indians as parting with their bloo